


I'll Settle for Less Than Perfect

by cheekbone-sexual (nsalmon)



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, M/M, confused arthur
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-22
Updated: 2015-07-22
Packaged: 2018-04-10 15:06:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4396550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nsalmon/pseuds/cheekbone-sexual
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merlin didn't expect Arthur Pendragon to be hiding anything more than a pint of cheap whiskey from his Ri, or his grades from his parents, but a series of encounters makes Merlin curious and Arthur confused. </p><p>AKA, Merlin and Arthur are at university together; chaos ensues. (Read: communal bathrooms!) SexuallyConfident!Merlin and Confused/Closeted!Arthur</p><p>P.S. I know "a series of encounters" sounds like total baloney but I'm sh*t at writing summaries sorry</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'll Settle for Less Than Perfect

The locker room had always confused me. Forget the gay predator rumors you’ve heard--I wasn't creeping around like some living-nightmare guy from a homophobe's darkest imaginings. Instead, I was my own worst nightmare. I kept my eyes to myself, terrified, for a while, as though if they strayed to anyone else’s body I was committing a sin. Eventually, when I realized I had to surrender myself to my very obvious homosexuality, I stopped caring. I found many of the guys in the locker room attractive, yes, but it was just bodies, and when people got in the shower we were all usually sweaty and disgusting from the day’s work and I was tired and wanted no part of any of them.

It was the same in the dormitory bathrooms. Sweaty, nasty uni slickers. Merlin, obviously, was the exception to that, but he could be cured with a cold shower and a recalling of the image of my father’s enraged face and spittle-splattered jowls.

He had been alone with me in the showers, once. Merlin that is, not my dad. Heh, heh. I was already inside a stall when I heard the curtain to the left of me slide closed and Merlin's telltale whistle wafting through the air. Obviously, I’m human, and a very horny teen, so when I heard the soft crumpling of his clothes hitting the ground, my prick sprang to attention. That was one of the coldest showers of my life. It was also one of the quickest, because I wanted to be gone before Merlin was out of the shower. I barely stopped to towel dry my hair and wrap a towel around my waist before I slid with slippery feet back up to my room. I wasn’t running away, per se. It was more of a safety precaution.

I was turning the doorknob, and then my door was open. The glow of my laptop beckoned, and I had history homework to finish.

“Hey!” I turned around. Merlin was behind me. He was wearing a towel. I was wearing a towel, too, although it was in serious danger of becoming a tent within the next five seconds. I thought of old people, of farting and of sick puppies, and my half-hard on subsided. Pretty soon, though, I’d have to graduate to holocausts and nuclear bombs—my usual boner-killers weren’t cutting it anymore around this guy.

“Hey,” I responded. I could hear Jack, my roommate, inside my room, Skyping with someone. I closed my door and leaned against it. I was trying to look casual, but I didn’t think it was working. I tried desperately not to cling to my towel, even though I was afraid it was slipping and would fall off any second. So what? It was just a body. Ha.

“Did you just run away from me in the shower?” His hair was wet. He looked wicked.

“No.”

“Really? Because I heard you leaving, and it sounded like you were running.”

“I’m in the habit of moving fast. I wanted to get to bed.”

“You shouldn’t run in the showers. It’s slippery in there. Wet.” _Oh, my God._

I was sweating. I slicked my hair back with one hand, curved the other around the door handle. Merlin's eyes swept over my feet, to my legs, to my knees, to my towel, to my stomach, to my chest, to my collarbones, to my neck, my face. I thought I was going to die. My stomach hurt. I didn’t let my eyes leave his face. I would have licked every drop of water off his—

“You’ve got a nice tan going there,” he said, his eyes flicking to my biceps. Running outside had given me a tan about halfway up my biceps, where the sleeves of my shirts ended.

“It’s really annoying. I feel like I’m straddling races here.”

“You should run with your shirt off. That would take care of it, easily.”

“The glare of my vampire-like abdomen would probably blind innocent passerby.”

“It’s not actually that bad. Look,” he placed his arm flush against my stomach, “we’re about the same, and I’ve been lifeguarding all summer.”

“I swam some back home.” It was true, but my tan was rapidly fading. Hence the short-sleeve tan line. I was trying not to concentrate on the fact that he was touching me. I breathed and felt the weight of his arm heavy on my lungs.

Merlin looked at me. “You know, you’re really quite attractive,” he said.

“I…” I had no idea what to say. I decided to brush it off. “Apparently I get it from my mom, then, because my dad’s butt ugly.”

“Your mother must be absolutely gorgeous,” he breathed. “I mean, look…” his arm left my stomach and reached for my face, then fell, limply, into the space between us.

“She’s great,” I managed. Also dead, very dead. I didn’t know how to tell people that, though. And it became truer every time I said it out loud. “I have history to finish.”

“So do I,” he smiled. “Come work with me. My room’s right down the hall.” I knew it was. I’d known since the beginning of the semester.

“I’m tired. I’d probably fall asleep in the middle.”

“So? Tate’s gone for the night, you can use his bed. Or mine.” So he had a boyfriend. Tate. And--but I was straight. Or, well, I wasn’t, but as far as anyone here was concerned, I was. I had to stop this.

“Listen,” I said. “I’m very flattered by your…” Flattery? Smooth. “No. You’re nice, okay? And I don’t know if you’re doing what I think you’re doing, but if you are, then you have to know…” I trailed off. Merlin looked at me. He was still smiling, an evil little crooked thing that threatened to fall off his face but hung on tenaciously as I talked.

“What, Arthur? What do I have to know?” I wanted to beg him to say my name again.

“I…have a girlfriend,” I breathed through my nose, closing my eyes, “back in Colorado.” It wasn’t all false. I had a _boy_ friend. Merlin's eyes, though, told me he knew. I know, they said. _You don’t have a girlfriend. You have no one. You could have me._ “So.” I turned the knob. There was no one else in the hall. Why was there no one else in the hall? Where were other people to separate us when I needed them?

“Arthur,” he said again. Hair was slipping down into my eyes again. He placed three fingers gently on my collarbone. “I know you like me.” _It’s okay,_ he was saying. But I didn't care.

“Good night, Merlin,” I said, and opened the door quickly. Jack looked up from his bed, where he was reading. “Hey, Jack.” He nodded hello, and I looked back at Merlin, and caught him with his eyes aimed at my towel.

“Something interesting about my towel?” I hissed, so Jack wouldn’t hear.

“I was actually thinking about what’s underneath,” he whispered back. “Lighten up, Frances.”

“No,” I said, then I closed the door in his face. I got a text from him later: _**I’ll see you at breakfast. Good talk.**_ You sarcastic little shit. I didn’t respond.

**Author's Note:**

> This may or may not be a continuing project I just got in the mood to write something homoerotic and here we are


End file.
